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Sunday, 16 December 2012

Casablanca piano sold at auction

A piano that features in the classic 1940s film
Casablanca has been sold for more than $600,000 (£370,000) at an auction in New
York.

The upright
piano appears in one of the film's most iconic scenes, in which Humphrey Bogart's
character Rick utters the line: "Here's looking at you, kid."

It was sold to
an unknown buyer at Sotheby's in New York.

The piano had
been offered for sale by its Japanese collector owner to mark the film's 70th
anniversary.

It was expected
to sell for as much as $1.2m, The owner originally paid about $154,000 for the
piano at auction in the late 1980s.

It is used in
the film by pianist Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, to play the song As Time Goes
By during a key flashback scene set in a Paris bar.

Rick Blaine,
played by Humphrey Bogart, delivers the famous line as he and Ingrid Bergman's
character Ilsa Lund lean on the piano, toasting with glasses of champagne.

The piano's
sale marks the 70th anniversary of the Oscar-winning World War II classic, which
is largely set in the Moroccan port city of Casablanca, then part of unoccupied
French North Africa.